1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a tailored promotion presented to a prospective customer, and more particularly to a tailored promotion presented to a prospective customer at an electronic commerce site.
2. Description of the Background Art
Electronic commerce is the transaction of commerce through an electronic medium, such as a distributed communication network. A common such network is the Internet, but may also include other common digital and computer networks such as a local area network (LAN), wide-area network (WAN), or a virtual private network (VPN), for example. As the most widespread and popular distributed communication network, the Internet will be used in all further discussion.
The Internet has become very popular for electronic commerce, with merchants electronically advertising and selling a wide variety of goods and services. The Internet has also proven to be a valuable tool for advertising and for building name or brand recognition, and therefore for establishing or increasing market share.
Current statistics show that electronic commerce is growing at a very rapid pace, and appears to be on track to achieve a respectable share of the total market in goods and services. Current estimates are that over 70 million Americans have Internet access, with this number projected to soon reach about 150 million. As a result, Internet advertising revenues reached $1.92 billion in 1998, and are expected to continue growing at a substantial rate.
Several traditional marketing approaches exist. In one traditional approach, a merchant may simply display goods and services on an electronic commerce site and simply wait for prospective customers to happen across the site.
Another traditional approach is the marketing promotion. Traditional marketing promotions generally operate on an assembly line approach. They generate a one-size-fits-all advertising theme and campaign, and aim the message at a large pool of prospective customers. The traditional approach works on the theory that if enough people receive the message, an acceptable percentage will be receptive and purchase the advertised goods and services. This is reflected on the Internet by so-called banner ads, that typically reside on a website and are displayed to all viewers of the website.
The assembly line approach works, but is not terribly efficient. First, by broadcasting a message to all available recipients, the traditional approach risks offending prospective customers by subjecting them to advertising campaigns on a large number of items they are not interested in. Second, by simply cranking out a uniform message to a large mass, the traditional approach is distracted from and overlooks smaller groups of likely and receptive prospects. Third, the assembly line approach may involve extra cost in targeting and reaching large numbers of unreceptive persons.
There remains a need in the art, therefore, for improvements in electronic commerce to present a tailored promotion to a visitor to an electronic commerce site.